Friday, October 05, 2012

alert

The A&E department is brightly,
happily, deliciously empty. A hundred miles of vacant trolleys extending from
the atrium along the main corridor past the second isolation room out towards
the sluice. Just a couple of occupied cubicles on this side, discreet
conversations, contented sounds. And nurses, doctors, consultants, HCAs,
cleaners, porters – everyone calmly fulfilling their roles, one thing at a
time, as easy in their day as uniform models in a catalogue. I walk up to the
desk, place my board on the counter and look around, wondering if I’ll ever see
it like this again.

A senior matron has followed me there. She
has a check-shirted man in tow - a photographer, judging by the fat and
expensive-looking camera he has round his neck. The matron stands next to me
and immediately has everyone’s attention.

‘Mind if we take a few shots of the
department?’ she says.

It so completely fits with the holiday mood
of the place, there is almost a burst of studio laughter and a round of
applause.

Only
if you get my best side.

He’s
a photographer, not a magician.

I
need something to do with my hands.

There’s
no answer to that.

Just
look busy, people.

Thank
god you weren’t here yesterday.

The matron absorbs all the comments with a strangely
glittering expression, something like a fox in a chicken coop. When the hilarity
subsides, she speaks to the charge nurse.

‘Actually he’s from the coroner’s office.
We need to establish the sight-lines from the desk to this bed here.’

The charge nurse blanches.

‘How do you want me in the picture?’ she
says, picking up the phone and sitting up straight. ‘Is this all right?’

I don't know what happened, but it's fair to assume the Coroner thinks an attendance at A&E was part of the picture.Thanks for reading, Corina - I hope the bleaker side of things in some of these entries doesn't put you off visiting England!

There are so many great places to live in the world. We went to New York earlier in the year - what an amazing city! I can really imagine living there (would love to). If only I had the time & money to travel a bit more. Still - home's also good!